---
title: Cold-Blooded Murder! Remember Germany's Crowning Infamy
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cold-blooded-murder-1915/
description: A text-only recruiting poster that leads with the Lusitania sinking, then lists eight charges beginning 'Germans have', from murdered civilians and gas…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Cold-Blooded Murder! Remember Germany's Crowning Infamy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cold-blooded-murder-1915.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cold-blooded-murder-1915.jpg)

# Cold-Blooded Murder! Remember Germany's Crowning Infamy

A text-only recruiting poster that leads with the Lusitania sinking, then lists eight charges beginning 'Germans have', from murdered civilians and gas at Ypres to poisoned wells in South Africa, and ends 'Enlist to-day'. Documented events and unverified claims share one typeface and one format with no dates, places or sources, and the closing label 'German barbarians' sums up the list.

- **Date:** 1915
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (United Kingdom), poster no. 97; printed by Roberts & Leete Ltd., London
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Asquith Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=asquith-government)
- **Leader:** [Herbert Henry Asquith](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=herbert-henry-asquith)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Recruit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=recruit)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2003675280/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) 1915. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-11309.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
COLD-BLOODED MURDER!

REMEMBER

GERMANY'S CROWNING INFAMY

THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA, WITH HUNDREDS OF WOMEN & CHILDREN

Germans have wantonly sacked Cities and Holy Places.

Germans have murdered thousands of innocent Civilians.

Germans have flung vitriol and blazing petrol on the Allied Troops.

Germans have killed our Fisherfolk and deserted the drowning.

Germans have inflicted unspeakable torture by poison gases on our brave Troops at Ypres.

Germans have poisoned wells in South Africa.

Germans have ill-treated British Prisoners.

Germans have assassinated our Wounded.

THESE CRIMES AGAINST GOD AND MAN ARE COMMITTED TO TRY AND MAKE YOU AFRAID OF THESE GERMAN BARBARIANS

The place to give your answer is
THE NEAREST RECRUITING OFFICE

ENLIST TO-DAY
```

[← Can I Afford to Pay for Freedom (Canadian Patriotic Fund)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/can-i-afford-canadian-patriotic-fund-1915/) [Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War? →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/daddy-what-did-you-do-1915/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking)
- [Remember the Maine! And Don't Forget the Starving Cubans! (Judge)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-the-maine-starving-cubans-judge-1898/) (May 7, 1898 · Card stacking)
- ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/) (1899 · Card stacking, Name-calling). Content note: Photograph of two dead Filipino soldiers.
- ["England and the War in South Africa" (Der wahre Jacob, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-and-capitalism-der-wahre-jacob-1899/) (Dec 5, 1899 · Card stacking, Scapegoating)
- ["Kill Every One Over Ten" (New York Evening Journal, 1902)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kill-every-one-over-ten-1902/) (May 5, 1902 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Blindfolded Filipino children before a firing squad.